Deep Blue Nails
by ExtremeEly23
Summary: He dreams of the day he can wear his deep blue nails, and people will not laugh or jeer. Has he finally found someone through the wills of chance that he can share this part of himself with?


The hot tears coursed down Rei's cheeks, passing silently across bruised skin and a split lip. Not a word passed beyond his throat between the silent sobs, choked back, his whole body shaking under the agony of silence.

He turned left, clutching his fists tightly to hide the deep-blue nail polish, cracked and fading. This route gave him at least 10 more minutes for the swelling to go down, or at least for his eyes to stop showing the puffy redness of his weakness.

A silent residential road, undisturbed by the 4pm rush of students on their way home; perhaps he might even let a sharp gasp or two escape, to relieve some of the pressure building up in his chest.

His quiet footfalls ended and he froze silently, however, at the sight of a younger boy, clearly an underclassman, with his nose pressed against a fence, calling to a dog within.

He laughed a raucous, infectious laugh of glee as the animal appeared to be licking his nose, his feathery blonde locks falling over his eyes.

Something twinged at the corner of Rei's aching mouth, his lip twitched, his eyes relaxed; a smile began to grow across his cheeks. A simmering chuckle, a mixture of joy and the pent up sorrow began to fall from rei's lips. It bubbled and grew, louder and louder as the tears began to flow once more. He laughed, hard and sincere, as his body shook from the force of the sobs caught behind each exhale.

Without his notice, the younger boy's laughter had died down, and he turned to look down the street at Rei.

His smile faded as he watched droplet after droplet hit the pavement beneath Rei's chin. He stood, concerned; moving towards Rei quietly.

Rei's awareness of the situation smacked him hard; the boy was coming closer, he was coming closer and Rei was still crying, he was mere feet away and the tears continued to fall, Rei's thumbs digging harder into his palms as he found himself unable to stop.

"Are you okay?" He asked his voice quiet and concerned.

Rei crumbled.

Without a word, the blonde boy's arms wrapped around Rei's back, holding him tightly into an unexpected embrace.

His head fell to the boy's shoulder, his voice cracked and strained as he tried to apologise.

For ten minutes they stood there, Rei's pain spilling out his mouth as fast as his lips could carry the words; the blonde boy patting his head with such gentle sincerity, guiding him to the sidewalk slowly, calming him with kind-hearted words.

There they sat, on the pavement, in complete silence.

Rei didn't meet the boy's eyes. The embarrassment from his outburst kept his mouth clamped shut. The boy, concerned expression receding once more to be replaced by a shimmering smile, was content to sit quietly.

Rei's desire to thank this strange boy for his gentle comfort eventually overcame his attempt at stoic and silent, his usual approach to most conversations. He had planned an elaborate thankyou, a way in which he could show his true gratitude for the boy's unabashed sympathy.

"..Thanks" was all he could mumble. That wasn't right, that wasn't what he wanted to say.

"Thankyou; for being…so nice" A fraction closer. Rei ended his thankyou there. He knew from experience that the more he said, the less he was liked. Silence had worked well for him; no-one hurt him when he was silent, at least not as much.

He unfurled his hands, inspecting the remnants of the deep blue nail polish. He'd bought it for himself nearly a year ago, wearing it on holidays and weekends; constantly careful to keep it hidden from friends and family.

This round of polish had been applied over the holidays. Rei had attempted to furiously scrub it off last night, the day before school returned for the year, but it hadn't all come off. He had thought it could be kept hidden for just a day, but he had been wrong.

"I love your nail polish!" the boy exclaimed, making Rei jump sideways on his backside.

The instinctual fear in Rei's eyes was a natural reaction, the same reaction he always had when someone discovered his nails.

Was it sarcasm? Surely it was sarcasm. Tomorrow the boy's friends would all hear of the Faggot with painted nails. Even remembering the name Rei had been given, only heard as whispers amongst people Rei had never spoken to, sent nausea to the pit of his stomach. That word made him sick; every time he had been beaten, every person whom thought he stood too close, it was their venom, injected directly to his veins.

The younger boy removed his hands from beneath his thighs, spreading his fingers to display…light pink nail polish, with swirling patterns in a vibrant red across each nail.

He swirled his wrist slowly around to show Rei every intricate detail of the nails. The light bounced off the glittery red just so, and Rei was awestruck.

He'd never seen nails so beautiful up close before, and reached out gently to hold the blonde's small hand, adjusting his glasses to stare wide-eyed at every intricate line.

The boy giggled, and Rei pushed up his glasses to realise he was grasping the blonde's hand, his face just centimetres from each delicately manicured finger.

He reeled backwards, hands flinching back to his sides. Physical contact like this rung so many alarm bells within Rei; explain yourself. Don't look him in the eyes. You aren't into that. It was an accident.

His eyes silently flickered between the blonde and any possible escape route. He couldn't stay. This was not going to end well.

"My name's Nagisa, by the way. My sisters taught me how to do my nails like that."

The boy ran his nails through feathery locks, brushing a persistent strand from his eyes. His smile was bright and cheerful, as it had been before. A smile looked so good on him, so easy and natural; Rei wished only the same happiness could come with such ease to himself.

"Don't you get teased for your nails?" Rei asked quietly.

"All the time! But they mean more to me than anything a dumb bully says." Nagisa seemed so self-assured and confident. He was so strong, so much stronger than Rei.

The ease at which he responded and the ease at which he could brush off such harassment, Rei was amazed.

"Can I see your nails?" Nagisa asked, with the utmost sincerity.

Rei presented his hands, and Nagisa squeezed them gently, tutting over the chipped polish. He looked upwards at Rei's face, recognizing the split lip and the beginnings of bruises across both cheeks and his nose.

He had seen them before, he wanted to say something. He wanted to show Rei the scar under his chin from the worst they had done to him, to show the remnants of bruises across his torso from a week ago. His confidence came at a price, after all.

Nagisa didn't, though. He raised his palm to Rei's cheek to trail gently, feather-light across each mark, his cool fingers soothing the stinging pain.

Rei sighed contentedly into the touch, but jumped suddenly, as did Nagisa at the sound of blaring pop music. Nagisa yanked his phone from his pocket, flipping it open hastily and cramming it to his ear.

"MUM! Yes, I'll be home soon…no it wasn't the dog this time."

Rei smiled; clearly this was a typical occurrence with this peculiar boy.

Rei began readjusting his bag over his back, preparing to leave after Nagisa's phone call. To his surprise, a hand came out to grab his wrist as he stood.

"Hey mum, is it alright if I bring a friend over? He's very nice."

Rei's eyes widened in shock, he waved his hand against his throat, mouthing "NO" repeatedly, but it was too late, Nagisa had said farewell and the call was over.

"Alright! I guess you're coming over to my house!"

"I'm sorry but I...I can't come I haven't organized anything with my parents and I've really got a huge amount of work to do maybe we can-"

"Just call them later!" Nagisa hummed merrily, pouncing to his feet to loop his arm around Rei's.

The taller boy mumbled another string of excuses, slowly being dragged towards the house of his newly-made friend.

Friend?

Is that what Nagisa was? Surely, an encounter and emotional breakdown on a stranger constituted something a bit odder than friendship…didn't it?

Resigned to his fate, Rei allowed himself to be dragged away at a hasty walk, before being paused briefly.

"I forgot to ask your name!" Nagisa exclaimed.

"Rei. My name is Rei."

"Well Rei," Nagisa commented, "I'm going to redo those deep blue nails so they look as pretty as your eyes."

The heat in Rei's cheeks kept him warm on the entire walk to Nagisa's house.


End file.
